Guru Investment Theses on BMC Software, Inc.

Bill Nygren Comments on BMC Software - Oct 08, 2013

We have discussed our thoughts on the Discovery and Dell sales in past letters, but we did receive a worthy update on BMC (BMC) since we sold it in the fourth quarter of 2012. Recall that BMC management conducted a strategic review during the second quarter that we owned the stock and decided to remain an independent company. Given the lack of a compelling purchase offer for BMC during the review, we exited our position because we no longer believed it was selling at a significant discount to private market value. Our opinion has since been validated. On September 10, 2013, BMC management sold the company for $46.25 per share—roughly 12% above our average sale price. During that same time, the Oakmark Select Fund and the S&P 500 returned 25% and 20%, respectively—both well in excess of BMC’s modest price increase.

Valuation & Return

Business Description

BMC Software, Inc., was organized as a Texas corporation in 1980 and was reincorporated in Delaware in July 1988. It is a software company which provides IT management solutions for large, mid-sized and small enterprises and public sector organizations around the world. The Company's portfolios of IT management software solutions simplifies and automates the management of IT processes, mainframe, distributed, virtualized and cloud computing environments, as well as applications and databases. It also provides its customers with maintenance and support services for its products and assist customers with software implementation, integration, IT process and organizational transformation, and education services. The Company is organized into two business segments, Enterprise Service Management (ESM) and Mainframe Service Management (MSM). The Company's ESM segment consists of its solutions and related professional services in the following IT management areas: Service Assurance; Service Automation; Service Support; and BMC Atrium. The Company's MSM segment addresses IT requirements for mainframe data and performance management, middleware management, job scheduling and enterprise workload automation. The Company's customers include manufacturers, telecommunication companies, financial service providers, educational institutions, retailers, distributors, hospitals, service providers, government agencies and channel partners including resellers, distributors and system integrators. Its competitors are International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), CA, Inc. (CA) and Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). The Company's solutions are used by some of the largest, demanding IT organizations in the world including over 16,000 companies.

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